A Demon's Wrath: Part I (Peachville High Demons) (8 page)

“We’ve been engaged for ten years and
not once have we talked about our future,” she said. “You
don’t kiss me or hold me or dream of having a child with me.
You don’t even talk about what it will be like someday to rule
this kingdom. All you do is talk about a brother who is gone and
never coming back.”

I shifted into black smoke, pulling away from her
grasp and reforming several steps away. “He was my twin. He was
a piece of me,” I said. “It’s my duty to avenge his
death, but I can’t do that until I can find the demon who took
his life. After ten long years, we are no closer to finding the truth
and yes, it eats at me to the point of obsession. It lives with me
every second of every day, and I will not let it go. Not until I know
the truth. So don’t ask me to dream of some future happiness
when I am missing half of my own soul.”

She lowered her chin to her chest and touched her
hand to her forehead. “I want answers, too,” she said. “I
loved him as a brother, too. But we have to learn to move forward. I
know you loved him, but you love me, too. And I need to know that
there’s a future for us beyond this search. Can’t our
love be enough?”

She looked up, her green eyes shimmering with
tears.

I pressed my lips together to keep them from
trembling. Sorrow and guilt pinched the back of my throat. “No,”
I said. “It will never be enough.”

Lea’s breath hitched and she clamped her
hand to her mouth, then shifted into black smoke.

I clenched my fists and let my head fall back. I
didn’t mean to let that slip out, but she was pushing me too
hard.

I had to follow her.

She had left the main road and flown into a dark
wooded area. I followed the trail of her magic, flying fast through
the trees to catch up to her. The forest was dense and dark with
gnarled trees that split off in many directions, and I had to force
my focus onto her trail, blocking out everything on either side.

And when the trail broke through the barrier of
trees and into a clearing, I stopped, finding her staring out into a
field.

“I’m sorry, Lea,” I said. “I
shouldn’t have—”

“Shut up,” she said, gripping my chin
between her thumb and index finger.

I stepped back in shock. She’d never spoken
to me so firmly. I didn’t understand until she turned my head
to the side, forcing me to really look at the clearing here in the
middle of the dark forest.

I gasped and fell to my knees.

Spread out before us were more than a thousand
black roses.

The pattern here wasn’t the same circular
pattern as what I’d seen in my vision, but this was the first
real break we’d had in ten years.

Lea leaned down to touch one, but a voice spoke
from the darkness just inside the trees to our left.

“You don’t want to touch that,”
he said.

Lea stood and I moved in front of her, my hand out
to the side to shield her. These roses were well hidden. Anyone who
knew about them was likely partnered with whoever killed my brother.

My free hand went to the sword strapped to my
back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lea reach for her bow and
arrow.

“Show yourself,” I said.

Laughter sounded from the darkness.

“I’m not your enemy,” the voice
said.

A figure emerged from the cover of the gnarled
trees. He was hovering in an in-between state, half shadow, half
solid form. For him to hold onto both so steadily, he had to have
tremendous amount of control and power.

He was tall and straight, his confidence obvious
from the way he carried himself. He lifted his hands into the air,
black shadows swirling around them.

“Who are you?” I asked. Every part of
my body was on high alert, ready to react at any sudden movement or
attack. Aerden had been one of the best warriors I’d ever
known. For someone to have gotten the upper hand, they had to have
been strong. Or very smart.

He did not answer.

He took several more steps toward us, keeping to
the edge of the sinister flowers. His eyes moved beyond me and he
lowered his eyes, bowing slightly at the waist. “Princess.”

Behind me, Lea lowered her bow.

So he recognized us. Or at least her. Did that
mean he was just a citizen of the city or one of the nearby villages?
If so, what was he doing here by the roses?

“How did you come by these flowers?” I
asked. “What do you know about them?”

He glanced toward the roses, an eyebrow raised. “I
grew up in a village near here,” he said. “My mother is
an herbalist, making potions from plants and roots. She taught me a
few things here and there.”

“No one in the villages near here know
anything about these roses,” I said. I didn’t trust this
demon.

“Well, that’s because these are my
roses,” he said. He took several more steps toward us, and I
didn’t know whether to stand my ground or back away.

If these were his roses, then he definitely had
some kind of connection to my brother’s death. I just hadn’t
decided yet if he was friend or foe. There was something about his
confidence that made me feel uneasy, as if I was being handled and
manipulated.

He took another step and I pushed my sword out
toward him. “You can stop there,” I said.

He smiled and shrugged, lowering his hands. And
when he did, a band around his arm came into clear view among the
swirling shadows.

My heart stopped beating and the vision of
Aerden’s last moments came back to me in a rush. Someone
wearing the same insignia had run toward him, but they had been
cloaked in darkness.

Cloaked in shadows.

This demon wore the same insignia on a band around
his arm.

A red dragon.

He was there when my brother died. I lifted my
sword to his neck, my hands gripping the hilt so tightly my palms
burned.

“You were there,” I said, my voice
strained in fury. “Speak, demon.”

He stared at the sword, then raised his hands
again and backed away. “I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” he said.

“Liar.” I nodded toward his armband.
“The dragon you wear on your arm. I’ve seen that before.”

He glanced at his arm, then tilted his head and
narrowed his eyes at me.

“Where?”

I took one hand off of my sword, but left the
weapon outstretched toward him. I lowered my pack to the ground and
dug through it until I found the right drawing. I shoved it toward
him, then backed up again.

The demon gripped the page, his nostrils flaring.
“Where did you get this?”

“I drew it,” I said. “Do you
deny that this is you?”

He studied the page harder. He brought the page up
close to his eyes, taking his time looking at every single detail.
This was my best drawing of the dragon, but I had enlarged it so that
you couldn’t see much of what else was going on in the
background.

“This isn’t me,” he said.

“You’re lying,” I said. “The
band is exactly the same. If it isn’t you, then you surely know
who it is. And I want answers.”

“Answers about what?” Andros asked.

“About my brother’s death,” I
said. This time, I was the one who stepped forward. I’d had it
with this demon’s conversation. He either needed to start
giving clear answers or he needed to die.

After ten years of searching for
something—anything—I was ready for blood.

“Tell me what you know, or so help me, you
will die by this sword today.”

The demon’s eyes flicked toward Lea and he
shook his head. “You would be wise to move on now,” he
said. “I can’t help you.”

I shifted and reformed behind him before he had a
chance to move. My arm slipped around his throat and I pressed the
tip of my sword against his side. I moved my mouth close to his ear,
my teeth clenched tight. “What did you do?” I asked. “I
need answers. Why Aerden? What did he do to deserve death at the
hands of a demon like you?”

He didn’t struggle against my hold. He
didn’t even seem concerned with my anger, which only further
fueled my rage.

“Your brother?” he asked. “He’s…”

He shook his head and shifted into shadows,
slipping through my grasp like air. With the sword pressed against
him as hard as I had it, he shouldn’t have been able to shift
completely into shadow form, but his ability to focus continued to
surprise me.

“He’s what?” I asked. The more
he talked in circles, the more I wanted to see him kneeling at my
feet, begging for mercy.

He reformed beside Lea and I barreled toward him,
gripping his armband in my fist. I ripped it from his coat and shoved
it in his face.

“What were you doing there when he died? I
have to know,” I said.

He didn’t speak or even seem rattled by my
anger. He simply turned his back on me.

“Talk,” I said. I pressed my sword
against his back, pushing deep enough to draw blood. “Or I will
kill you. I swear it.”

Andros turned around, a strange gleam in his eyes.

“I’d like to see you try,” he
said.

Rage flowed through me and ice frosted over the
length of my sword.

The demon’s eyes widened and he smiled,
taunting me.

I clenched my jaw tight and spun around, putting
the full force of my anger into my weapon as it sliced through the
air. In the instant before I split him in half, the demon shifted
into shadow and flew high into the air, leaving a trail of black
smoke behind him.

I shifted and pushed up from the ground, chasing
him. He reformed at the opposite side of the circle of roses, then
reached out and with his bare hand, he stopped one of Lea’s
arrows just before it pierced his skin. He simply closed his fist
around it as if it had been moving in slow motion.

The arrow disintegrated into ash and floated to
the ground. The demon wiped his hand against his leg, completely
unfazed. With a flick of his wrist, vines emerged from the forest and
wrapped around Lea’s hands and legs. She screamed.

“I can’t shift. Denaer, run,”
she said. “He’s too powerful. Get help.”

The vines tightened against her wrists and ankles,
then jerked her backward stabilizing her back against a tree.

I swung my sword over the top of my head, then
pulled it forward, sinking it deep into the ground in front of me.
The earth around the blade froze in an instant. A frozen circle
spread out in layers, going through the flowers on one side and the
trees on the other, ice popping and cracking as it crystallized.

It happened in an instant, but the demon acted
faster than I could have imagined. He squatted down and placed his
hand flat against the ground. My ice path stopped spreading, then
rapidly melted.

My chest tightened and I focused my eyes on the
demon’s face.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked. I had
never sparred with anyone so effortlessly powerful.

“My name is Andros,” he said. He
nodded his head. “Nice to meet you.”

He seemed to think this was funny. He didn’t
think we were capable of hurting him in any way, but he didn’t
understand the full force of my despair and anger. I wouldn’t
stop until I had brought him to his knees.

I gripped the hilt of my sword and pulled it from
the ground. I secured it into my backpack and with both hands now
free, I held them out from my sides. I planted my feet firmly on the
ground and lifted, drawing water up from several layers below the
surface. A hole opened in the ground in front of me and water poured
from it.

I reached forward and pulled thin rods of ice from
the fountain one at a time. I threw them toward the demon as fast as
I could. One direct hit and the ice would pierce straight through
him. He would die in moments.

He managed to dodge all but the last one.

My heart leapt into my throat as I watched the
final rod soar through the air toward his neck.

His eyes widened and for a moment, I thought I had
him beat.

Then, he drew in a breath and blew outward with a
great force. Flames erupted from his mouth and the ice evaporated,
not even a drop of water left.

The flames singed my skin and I fell backward,
lifting my arms to protect my face from the heat. I scrambled against
the ground, panic seizing my body. I was in way over my head. I
needed to run, but I couldn’t leave Lea here. I reached for my
sword, trying to calculate the distance to her from here and whether
I could sever all four vines before the demon could stop me.

But before I even realized what was happening, he
pressed a dagger to my throat.

I tried to shift, but he had me locked into form.

I struggled against his grip, crying out when the
tip of his dagger pierced my skin.

He leaned forward, his breath hot against my ear.
“You have spirit,” he said. “With training you
could be a true warrior like your brother.”

“Don’t you dare speak of him,” I
said.

“Your brother isn’t dead,” he
whispered.

I kicked against the ground, but wasn’t
strong enough to pull myself from his grip. I grabbed his arm,
sending what was left of my magic through my hands and into his body.
He should have frozen like a statue, but instead, a tiny layer of ice
frosted over his clothing, then melted in an instant.

“Kill me if you must,” I said. “But
don’t tell me lies.”

“It’s not a lie.”

“I saw him die,” I said. “I felt
him ripped from me.”

The demon loosened his grip and I scrambled to my
feet, my hands going to my new wound. It burned so deeply, I felt
feverish and ill.

“Not dead,” he said. “Merely
taken from this world.”

I shook my head, not believing him.

“Impossible,” I said. “Portal
magic has been dead for centuries. There’s no way to leave this
world.”

“It’s been rediscovered,” he
said. He sheathed his dagger in a strip of leather at his waist.